There’s nothing we like more than the great outdoors, be it a good festival or outdoor concert or even camping. What we don’t like is the mud, the muck, the rain and the cold. A lot of it can’t be helped, but for cold fingers, our friends at Zippo may have a solution. Enter the Zippo Hand Warmer.
The first thing that comes to mind when you think of Zippo is their range of windproof lighters, of which they have literally hundreds of designs. What Zippo have done is taken that iconic design and engineered a very handsome hand warmer. At first impression, we’re looking at what looks like a bigger Zippo lighter, with ‘Zippo’ embossed at the bottom and ventilation holes on the top half. Packaged alongside the Hand Warmer is a warming bag, a filler cup, and easy-to-follow instructions for use.
We had no trouble setting the hand warmer up, and the entire process to make the hand warmer hot took no more than three minutes. The only additional purchase you need is a good quality lighter fluid – ideally Zippo or Ronsonol – available online, or in our case on the nearest high street.
The hand warmer comes with instructions for use, but we found the Zippo YouTube channel to be more useful; to get the hand warmer working, these are the steps:
- Remove the lid from the hand warmer
- The piece sticking out is the catalytic burner, remove that
- Using the lighter fluid, fill the fill cup to the desired amount (there is a fill line to prevent overfilling)
- Pour the fluid in the small circular opening at the top of the opened hand warmer
- Replace the catalytic burner
- Keep the hand warmer upright for about 2 minutes
- Apply a flame (lighter or match) to the burner for about 10 seconds
- When it starts to feel warm, replace the lid and you’ll have heat radiating for up to 12 hours
Like we said, couldn’t be much simpler!
And yes, it does get hot! Hot to the point where if it’s not in its pouch it can be too hot to handle, and for up to twelve hours you’re set with toasty warm hands on demand. We tried it out recently at an all-day outdoor sports event and it was perfect for the whole day, keeping the hands of three of us warm!
Essentially, what we’ve got is an iconic design, a simple to use functional tool, and a bargain price. There’s no shortage of places where you can use the hand warmer, from festivals to camping to just being outdoors in the winter; it’s compact enough for most pockets (there is a smaller 6 hour model if the 12 is too big). Zippo are known for their quality and we have no doubt that this hand warmer will be working perfectly for years to come.
10/10
Written by: Omar Malick
The Zippo Hand warmer can be purchased from Zippo online in a range of colours. Prices vary from £20.75 to £34.35.
